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DUTERTE ORDERS PH VESSELS TO STAY PUT IN WPS IN A TEST OF WILLS By Vito Barcelo, Macon Ramos-Araneta leave the waterway despite the risk of damaging America will help us or not. Let us stop pinning our tend with China over the WPS, but reiterated the country’s present relationship with China. hopes on America. They will not help us. A nuclear the Philippines maintains its claim of soverand Maricel V. Cruz “This will really be a test: I read China said we war – you think America will intervene?” Duterte eignty over the islands and the waters within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday told (Philippine ships) should leave. I now say (to PH ves- said in his televised weekly address. Next page The President said he did not want to conPhilippine ships in the West Philippine Sea not to sels): Do not leave. Period. Regardless of whether
FROM 190 TO 9. National
Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. tells CNN Philippines, in a screen grab of his TV interview, that only nine Chinese vessels remain in the Julian Felipe reef, down from 190 in March.
MECQ in NCR Plus till May 14 Mayors, barangays now answerable for any violations of health protocols
By Joyce Pangco Panares, Joel E. Zurbano and Willie Casas
MECQ (Until May 14 only)
P
RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte extended the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in the NCR Plus bubble (Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite, and Laguna) until May 14.
Metro Manila, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite, and Rizal (NCR Plus) Santiago City and Quirino in Isabela province
GCQ
The President also directed mayors and barangay captains to take the lead in enforcing regulations on social distancing and health protocols as he expressed frustration over the high number of COVID-19 cases recorded daily. “There is a national health emergency and with that comes also the power of the state to control whatever there is to control to promote public health. That is within the power of the president,” he said in a public address Wednesday evening. “Under the police powers of the state, the mayors and the barangay captains, because they are persons of authority, they are the ones who should be responsible for the enforcement of the law. Guidance is only given to the poloce because the supervision belongs to the mayor.”
(Until May 31)
HELPING HANDS. San Miguel Corp. has started deploying its own doctors and nurses on loan to local government units to help implement the country’s vaccination program, while the conglomerate waits to start its own nationwide vaccination for some 70,000 employees in June. SMC deployed two doctors and 17 nurses last week to vaccination sites in Mandaluyong City and is looking to send more to other LGUs in the coming weeks.
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India’s surge in cases may delay vax delivery, but Palace optimistic By Willie Casas THE government is anticipating more delays in the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines due to the surge in cases in India, which has experienced 1 million new
cases in the last three days, the Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday. “Because of what’s happening in India, they have stopped their commitments to other countries. We are not the only ones facing this issue,”
said Health Undersecretary Maria Ro- unclear if this commitment would hold. sario Vergeire. The Philippines was also expecting The country’s ambassador to In- 30 million doses of the Novavax jab— dia had earlier said 8 million doses of also made in India--later this year. Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin would be Despite the warning of delays, the delivered by the end of May, but it was Next page
‘Gov’t must look into its logistics in fight vs. virus’
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MGCQ (Until May 31) Rest of PH
New Curfew Hours in Metro Manila 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.
Trade-off deal on pork tariff in the works By Macon Ramos-Araneta
By Willie Casas and Macon Ramos-Araneta SENATE President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, reviewing the government’s fight and response against the killer coronavirus, said a count was in order on bed facilities and others needed for those infected. “One year and one million cases after the country’s first recorded COVID-19 case, a count on the number of ICU beds, ventilators and critical care equipment in government hospitals is in order, Recto said in a statement. “In any war, we should always look at the logistics. For the frontlines to keep on fighting, the supply lines must keep on running,” he said. As the nation grapples with another surge which saw cases breach the one million-mark, Recto said the Senate should begin its “mandatory review” of
Apayao, Baguio City, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Batangas, Quezon, Tacloban, Iligan, Davao City, Lanao del Sur
ILLEGAL PORK.
Workers of the City Veterinary Board of Manila on Tuesday seize P1.5 million worth of pork from Germany at a storage facility along Solis Street in Tondo, Manila. Norman Cruz
Variant in India detected in over a dozen countries
By Willie Casas, Vito Barcelo and Macon Ramos-Araneta
THE World Health Organization has said a variant of COVID-19 feared to be contributing to a surge in coronavirus cases in India has been found in over a
dozen countries. The UN health agency said the B.1.617 variant of COVID-19 first found in India had as of Tuesday been detected in over 1,200 sequences uploaded to the GISAID open-access database “from at least 17 countries.”
“Most sequences were uploaded from India, the United Kingdom, USA and Singapore,” the WHO said in its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic. The WHO recently listed B.1.617 -Next page
IVERMECTIN STILL A ‘NO’ FOR COVID
Story on A4
CELESTIAL GLORY. The full moon of April, called the Super Pink Moon, lit up the night sky in different parts of the world on Tuesday. It shone brightly over the Entertainment City area near JW Diokno Bridge in Pasay City, and rose over the skyline of Manhattan, New York. AFP
HACIENDA LUISITA TASK FORCE SEEN Story on A4
SENATORS on Wednesday said backchannel talks were underway with the Palace over their call for President Rodrigo Duterte to recall an executive order that doubled pork imports and lowered their tariff. Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon acknowledged there were talks but declined to say if he believed the government’s economic team led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez would be open to a compromise. The question, he said, should be directed at the economic managers who recommended to the President EO 128, which increased the minimum access volume (MAV) for pork imports that local hog raisers insist will kill the industry. Next page
COVID-19 PH AT A GLANCE
(AS OF 4 PM APRIL 28)
1,020,495 TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES
6,895 67,769 NEW
ACTIVE
17,031
115
DEATHS
NEW
935,695 10,739 NEW RECOVERIES